San Agustin, Isabela—The country’s Crossbred Capital celebrated its 15th Nuang Festival marking the 70th Araw ng San Agustin of this bustling town in the province of Isabela.
In an interview, Mayor Cesar Mondala said San Agustin has more than 5,000 hybrid carabaos where they get our dairy products.
“We are famous for being the number one producer of Murrah buffalos or carabaos in the Philippines as well as the prime supplier of carabao milk,” he said.
“Furthermore, the officialdom of San Agustin is delighted of what our town has so far achieved in terms of its contribution in the carabao upgrading program which is implemented by the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC),” Mondala said.
To give tribute to farmers’ best allies, the Nuang Festival showcases the finest breed of buffalos every 28th of September.
Nuang is the Ilocano term for buffalo.
“Through the concerted effort of the PCC and our local government unit, we have substantially placed all our efforts toward establishing a hefty base of dairy buffalos on the ground and now we are ensured that the enterprise development aspect of the program has been embraced by our farmers,” Mondala emphasized.
The P68-million Farm-to-Market Road nears its completion “will ease our burden in reaching far-flung barangays and it will provide more activities to promote our crossbred carabaos,” he added.
This was realized through the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rural Development Program and the Provincial Government of Isabela, the mayor said.
“The FMR will boost more of our dairy industry and will help out our farmers in their livelihood and will ease the problem in transporting raw milk to the processing center,” Mondala said.
Vice Governor Faustino G. Dy III “• when he was Governor in his previous term “• and PCC supported the dairy industry of San Agustin with the installation of a milking station and the establishment of microbiological laboratory in support to the production of superior buffalo milk and processed dairy, Mondala disclosed.